Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by barrelman:

9th anniversary beer brewed with absinthe and fennel. Bottle sampled with the Alstrom bros. on a rainy afternoon at the office. Thanks Stefan for dropping this by!

Looks auburn and clear. Smells like a rainbow. Kidding. Fennel and peppermint come through with subdued cinnamon. Harsh astringency in the taste wakes you up and lets you know that these guys are looking outside the box.Mouthfeel and drinkability are spot on. Makes me feel smooth.

Absinthe is what they used in olden times to go on acid trips. This was back in the day when you could order a tank of nitrous out of the Sears catalogue, mind, so I’m guessing the Absinthes I’ve had stateside are missing some of the punch of the olden drink.

Now, there’s a lot of sissy-mouthed “scientists” who have pored over old Absinthe recipes and insisted that the drink didn’t contain enough of anything to cause any effects aside from drunkenness. These scientists probably never even heard of Nine Inch Nails because Trent Reznor says Absinthe in the perfect drug, and that dude is cool as shit.

Yes, Absinthe don’t make you trip like you just dropped acid. Obviously. That’s why they didn’t have guitar solos in the 1890s. But it does produce an ancillary effect to the booze intoxication, the same as how hoppy beers make you feel different from malty ones, which make you feel different than red wine, which make you feel different than vodka, etc. Absinthe is numbing and floaty. And, back before the damn Democrats and their goddamn unconstitutional FDA, the drink probably rocked.

This beer, however, is terrifying. You can give it to kids in lie of a DARE progam. Like, still call it DARE, but now you’re DAREing them to drink a whole pint of this. The waiter said he couldn’t do it. I—and I a man who once chugged a bottle of tequila I found laying in a parking lots—I could not finish this.

Pours like that picture you see up there. (I was thinking it would be greener). Tastes like strong anise, fennel, and pain. The front end is black licorice patent medicine boffo, but the back end is uncomfortable verdant and bitter, like you’re eating the sort of plant matter that you’re biologically not supposed to. It’s like I’m chewing wood, or oak leaves. He back, back end is good black licorice, again, but then the plant matter bitterness lingers like cancer.

There are some things that man was not meant to eat, and such prandial incompatibility is signaled through gross, awful flavor. Anyone who says that perception can’t be grounded in biological fact has never tasted this beer.

Still, though, it's a well done experiment, and the front end tastes damn good. It'd definitely worth trying, even if it clashes with your pallet.

(Check out the full review in a Montreal beer guide: http://mynie.com/?p=318 )